Nigeria: Report Gives Details, Says Terrorist Groups Gaining Foothold in Nigeria

"But as we know when there is a problem, people want a solution to the problem that they found themselves in. There are many ways of solving a problem but when people are carrying bombs and guns, it is a serious problem that will need a solution. Since I left government I have not gone to Maiduguri and therefore I don’t know what they say the Joint Task Force [JTF] has done. So at my level, I will never make a comment on what I do not know," the former governor said.

Speaking on Boji Foi, a former commissioner in his cabinet, alleged to be a key financier of the sect, Sheriff said, "I want to make this very clear. Boji Foi was a politician. He was a chairman of his own local government before I became governor. And he was out of my cabinet two years before the Boko Haram crisis and if everybody that served in my cabinet will do something and I will be responsible for it, then no nobody can govern any state in Nigeria.

"They brought his name from his local government as a nominee and we appointed him commissioner and at a stage, we found that he was not doing what we wanted and we did not re-appoint him. Before the incident of Boko Haram, he was not in the government for two years. So we couldn’t have taken responsibility and most importantly, I didn’t know when Boji was arrested or when he was killed and who arrested him and who killed him," he said.

[Description of Source: Port Harcourt The Tide in English -- Daily owned by the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation]

Report Says People Ironically Support Boko Haram Against Government

AFP20110729619001 Lagos TELL in English 25 Jul 11 - 01 Aug 11 24-27

[Report by Tajudeen Suleiman: "The Real Boko Haram"]

Residents of Borno State detest military operations aimed at curbing activities of the Boko Haram sect, alleging that the operation have become the main problem heightening the security situation in the state and disrupting efforts to hold corrupt politicians accountable.

A rough-looking boy dressed in faded black T-shirt and brocade trousers sped into Kashim Ibrahim Road from one of the 'ghetto' streets of Abbaganaram on a bicycle holding a black polythene bag in his left hand. Almost immediately, one of the soldiers at a security point hundred meters away shouted furiously at him: "Kai come here, come here!"

The boy, who did not seem frightened, did a U-turn on the road, since very few vehicles now ply the road and returned to meet the heavily armed soldiers stationed beside an armored tank. The stern-looking soldiers ordered him to stop a few meters away and disclosed the content of the polythene bag as well as his destination.

He complied without a grudge. Satisfied, the heavily armed men barked at him again to "go, go" as they waved him off.

One of the soldiers later told the magazine that the Boko Haram people use these small boys to drop bomb and explosives at their targets and along the roads to attack the military patrol. For instance, the bomb that exploded near a military checkpoint at Bulumkutu two weeks ago that injured at least four soldiers was said to have been dropped by a little boy.

Some residents of the area, who spoke in confidence, claimed that they saw the boy when he dropped the polythene bag containing the explosive beside a huge billboard close to the checkpoint. But they dare not talk for fear of a sure repercussion from members of the sect

A 13-year-old boy was one of those killed in a military operation at Kaleri area of the metropolis on Saturday, 9 Jul after members of the Jama 'atul Ahlil Sunnah Wada'atu wai Jihad, popularly called Boko Haram, dropped a bomb inside a military tent in the area killing 19 soldiers.

The military, however, said that only five soldiers were wounded by the bomb. A few days later, at the three-day funeral prayer for Ali Kotoko, a prominent citizen of the state at his residence in Maiduguri, a boy carrying a home-made bomb in a polythene bag was apprehended by alert military personnel before he could drop it.

The bomb was targeted at the colorful crowd of prominent politicians gathered for the prayers. They include Ibrahim Bunu, former minister of the Federal Capital Territory and Bukar Ibrahim, a senator, who was also a former governor of neighboring Yobe State.

Victor Ebhaleme, a colonel and spokesman of the joint task force, confirmed to the magazine that the sect make use of young almajiris (street beggars) to perpetrate bomb attacks against their targets, usually the police, politicians of the ruling All Nigerian Peoples Party, and lately, the military. "They use these little almajiris to commit their atrocities. You know that Borno State has the largest concentration of almajiris in the country."

In the last six months, bombings and gun attacks have become daily features of Maiduguri and residents in volatile areas now stay indoors or walk around the neighborhoods with their radio and handsets to know areas where another bomb has gone off.

It is a survival strategy in a city fast turning into a killing field. The city has been arrested by terror as many markets and shops remained closed. Most non-indigene residents of the city continue to flee in spite of assurances by Governor Kashim Shettima that they would be protected.

Nnamdi Ojukwu, an Igbo trader and one of the few motor spare parts sellers that opened shop last week said that he had decided to stay because of his faith in Maiduguri. It took time to persuade him to speak to the magazine and when he did, he refused to be photographed.

"Since 1982 when I came to this town, I have never witnessed the kind of things that are happening now. I believe things would get better since the government and the security people are looking into it," he said.

But majority of the residents especially those in settlements on the outskirts of Maiduguri where the Boko Haram group find convenient for launching their gun and bomb attacks, are not as optimistic and they wished that the soldiers were never brought into the city.

But since the federal government took over control of the state security with the establishment of a new Joint Task Force, code-named ‘Operation Restore Order’ nine weeks ago, the battle to flush out Boko Haram has become fiercer.

Residents have complained that the soldiers break into their homes and kill innocent young men in the name of looking for Boko Haram sect members. The soldiers have also been accused of indiscriminate burning of houses and cars in areas where bombs were dropped by members of the sect.

The morgue of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital is filled with corpses of young men killed in military operations.

At Kalen, where the soldiers allegedly killed over 40 people in a counter-operation, the magazine spoke with 10 young women widowed by the military operation. Saudi and Habiba, both wives of Mohammed Abdul, allegedly killed by soldiers on 9 Jul, said that they watched the soldiers shot their husband after he was dragged out of his room.

"I started crying and asked them to kill me too since they have killed my husband but they pushed me away and said that the government did not ask them to kill women," Saudi told the magazine, holding her six months-old child in her left hand. The two wives both have nine children.

Talatu, another widow, who is also an orphan, claimed that the soldiers broke into their home and shot her husband, Audu Fulani, in her presence and those of their five children. Her husband was 38 years old. She alleged the soldiers also made away with the sum of N250, 000 from their bedroom.

"They said my husband is Boko Haram member but he was not a member of the sect. I know that he was not a Boko Haram member "she said, with tears gushing from her eyes. Talatu pointed at a burnt house a few meters away from theirs and said that it was the residence of Adamu Abdulahi, a teacher at the University of Maiduguri who was reportedly killed during the military operation at Kalen.

His car, allegedly burnt by the soldiers, was seen on the road a few meters to his house perhaps, an indication that he was driving home when the soldiers struck. His neighbors said that he showed his identity card to his killers but they still shot him.

The military’s attempt to flush out the sect from Maiduguri may have increased widowhood in the city and hundreds of children may have been orphaned. All the widows who spoke to the magazine in the affected areas claimed that no one cared about them.

They say that they heard that the state government has promised some succor but they were yet to be contacted. A statement issued to justify the house-to-house search by the military accused some members of the public of shielding members of the Boko Haram, and of having prior information about attacks against the military.

The statement, signed by Ebhaleme, warned the public of the consequences of collaborating with the sect. The military has insisted those killed in their operations were members of the Boko Haram, but the sect has replied that those the soldiers killed were innocent people and not members of the sect.

The fear of being caught in the crossfire between the sect and the military, many say, was responsible for the mass exodus of people, mostly non-indigenes, out of Maiduguri. Indigenes are also moving from unsafe zones to safer ones. Most shops are still closed at the hitherto busy Bank of the North area, Ramat Shopping Complex, Mammy Market in Wulari, and other places.

In a city where majority live on daily earnings, forced holidays of the last few weeks could be dehumanizing. Public recreation places - beer parlors and food canteens, have remained closed. Many hotels are forced to close because of lack of patronage.

Ezekiel Benue, a manager at Rahama Lodge, located on the highbrow Damboa Road, one of the safe areas of Maiduguri, told the magazine that the hotel might be forced to close if the situation continues for another week. "We run the hotel on diesel because there's no electricity supply, and when customers don't come, where would you get the money to continue?" he asked in frustration last Monday.

Maiduguri may be turning into another Afghanistan unless the government finds a solution soon. Governor Shettima, in a broadcast on the state radio and television stations last week likened the situation in the state to what is happening in Afghanistan where Talibans have engaged the government of Ahmed El-Kazai in a sustained terrorist battle to bring it down.

He appealed to the Boko Haram group to lay down arms and embrace peace. Quoting from the speech of the Afghan president at the burial of his brother killed by the Talibans, Shettima said: "It is easy to kill, anyone can do it. But only a real man can protect his fellow men."

The gripping tension, insecurity, and suffering occasioned by the military actions and the mass exodus of people from the state capital has led to a debate on the propriety of the government's response to the security challenge. The Borno elders, who have been silent since the crisis started in 2009, have asked President Goodluck Jonathan to withdraw the military from the streets of Maiduguri, citing human rights abuses.

Abu Zaid, spokesman of Boko Haram sect, who spoke to journalists in Maiduguri on telephone, also gave the withdrawal of the military from the state as condition for dialogue. He alleged that the military has subjected innocent civilians to "humiliation, brutalization, extortion, and undue hardship."

He said that the ban on motorcycles, which was a security measure by the government, had rendered many jobless and forced people to relocate. He said that only 19 of their members have been killed since 2009 till date.

But the state government has challenged the elders demanding military withdrawal to suggest "tangible and sustainable" alternative security measures in the absence of the military. Governor Shettima said in his broadcast that the elders have failed to give the government any other practical alternative measures to be taken if the military is withdrawn.

Since July 2009, when members of the Boko Haram, who refused to obey the state law on wearing of helmets for motorcycle riders were shot in the legs by soldiers, Maiduguri and its environs have been under the terror of the sect and residents have lived in fear.

It worsened in the last few months as the sect stepped up its campaign against the state, the police, and now the military drafted in to flush them out and restore normalcy.

The Boko Haram crisis is not a subject the people discuss in the open and there is hardly anyone willing to volunteer information on them. In Kaleri, Abbagranam, Limanti, Sheuri-North and South, where Shettima, the state governor alleged members of the sect are concentrated; no one admitted ever seeing or knowing a member of the group when the magazine visited the communities last week.

They are thickly populated communities in the neighborhood of the palace of Shehu of Borno. In other parts of the city, a similar stonewall is erected once the inquiry is about the activities of the sect. Those courageous enough to speak would only say they do not know them.

The magazine was told about an incident that happened in a mosque after the early Morning Prayer. A man took the microphone and prayed that God should expose members of the sect terrorizing the state. But before the congregation could say Amen, the Imam grabbed the microphone and dissociated himself from the prayer.

Yet, a source close to the late leader of the sect, Mohammed Yusuf, who guided the magazine on a tour of the Boko Haram flashpoints in the city, told the magazine that the people know the sect members but would not give any information on them. He gave two reasons why the people are unwilling to volunteer information on the group.

Other sources, who spoke to the magazine on condition of anonymity, gave similar explanations for the silence on Boko Haram members. One of the reasons is that members of the sect have shown that they are capable of being ruthless with people who try to give them away.

For instance, seven members of the Michika community in Maiduguri who threatened to reveal their identities to the security agencies were killed in their homes last year. The Michika people are mostly Christians from Adamawa State who sell grocery, tea and bread. Most of them are said to have fled after the incident.

The magazine was also told that a young man in Lamisla, who gave information to the police about the Boko Haram was killed a day after. "The people are afraid that they will be killed if they give out information.

But they know the people and they see them when they return from their operations and enter their houses," a source disclosed. Moreover, the magazine gathered, the sect had long warned residents through leaflets written in Hausa and in text massages about the danger of giving information to the security agencies.

Even the media is not spared from the threat of the Boko Haram. Most of the atrocities committed against those opposed to them are not reported in the local media and the national dailies. The group has gagged the media from reporting them in bad light.

Some staff of the Nigerian Television Authority and that of the Borno Radio and Television Station have been banned by the group from reporting for the stations through text messages sent to the GSM numbers of their bosses.

Lydia Samson, the beautiful presenter at the NTA network centre in Maiduguri, was one of those forced to go off the air. The sect reportedly warned Mohammed Daniya, the zonal director, against allowing her and a few others from reporting on air.

The lady, out of fear for her life, is said to have fled the city while she awaits response for her request for transfer. Ironically, a large number of the people appeared sympathetic to the Boko Haram mission and are willing to support them against the government.

Many said that Boko Haram, especially under Yusuf, its late leader, preached against the excesses of politicians. The alleged that moral depravity of most members of the political class is believed to be one of the reasons why the sect advocated for an Islamic state where there would be justice, not just for the rich and powerful, but for every common man.

The extrajudicial killing of Yusuf by the police and several members of his sect, allegedly on the instruction of a very influential state government official at the time, put a political coloration to the crisis. The attack on the sect, the killings, and the destruction of their mosque in Railway Area of the city, was believed to have been at the instance of the said political leader.

Since then, the sect had declared war on Ali Modu Sheriff, former governor and his party and all those perceived to be close to his government. All the people assassinated by the sect since 2009 were ANPP members or relations and supporters of Sheriff.

Prominent party members and government officials have all gone into hiding. The administration of Governor Shettima has managed to perform state duties largely because of the heavy police and military presence in the state.

Murtala Ahmad, a Muslim cleric and state coordinator of the Humanitarian Aid and Development Centre of Nigeria, explained the situation in the state as the consequence of "money politics" played by politicians in the state. He said that politicians lavish taxpayers' money in an environment of mass poverty and youth unemployment.

He said that the politicians were promoting rascality, corruption, and immoralities that have made groups like the Boko Haram relevant in their society. "Why would the people not sympathize with the Boko Haram? Boko Haram is not the one killing them and abusing their rights; it is the government and the military.

People saw the killing of innocent people by the police and the military in 2009 and the way Mohammed Yusuf, leader of the sect was killed, even though he was unarmed and in handcuffs. People see and experience injustice every day and you think they will not be happy to watch their tormentors die one by one? No, just tell me why the people will not have sympathy for the Boko Haram?"

Some of the residents told the magazine that they had no problem with the Boko Haram group because the sect is not fighting them. They see it as a government versus the Boko Haram conflict, but the military response to it has made it the problem of everybody.

Adamu Mohammed, a 60-year-old community elder in Bulumkutu area, where there have been several explosions in the last four weeks, said; "We don't have problem with the Boko Haram; our problem is the police and the military that harass and kill our innocent people. They call every Muslim a Boko Haram."

The manner of Yusuf's killing by the police after he was captured by the military and handed over to the police, made many people, especially politicians in the opposition parties in the state to accuse Sheriff of complicity in the rising militancy of the sect. It also became a political weapon used to demonize Sheriff and his party in the hope of capturing power.

It also alienated many in Sheriff's party. Ali Ndume, the former minority leader in the sixth House of Representatives, but now a senator on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, said that the former governor must take the blame for what is happening in the state today.

He said that Sheriff ignored the advice of well-meaning elders and members of his party on how to deal with the Boko Haram. He claimed that Sheriff's leadership style was one of the reasons why people like him left the ANPP.

Bukar Mandara, one of the Borno elders, corroborated Ndume’s story and said that Sheriff must be held accountable for the crisis in the state because of the way he handled the Boko Haram issue.

Many people told the magazine that Sheriff must be made to face the law if Boko Haram is to stop its killings in the state.

It is one of the conditions given by Sadau Garba, the lawyer of the late leader of the sect, for peace with the sect in a letter he wrote to President Jonathan on 11 Jul. He also asked Jonathan to constitute a judicial commission of enquiry to investigate the extrajudicial killings of the members of the sect in Borno and Bauchi states.

The Boko Haram was instrumental to Sheriff's loss of the election to the Senate. On the eve of the senatorial election, the sect warned ANPP agents and supporters not to show up at the polling units or risk death. Sheriff did well in six of the eight local governments in the Borno Central Senatorial District but lost woefully in Maiduguri and Jere - two local governments where Boko Haram is strongest.

[Description of Source: Lagos TELL in English - independent weekly news magazine]

Report Says Boko Haram, Soldiers Turn Maiduguri Into Nightmare

AFP20110729619003 Lagos TheNews in English 25 Jul 11 - 01 Aug 11 14-16, 18-20

[Report by Funsho Balogun: "Methods of a killing Machine"]

From a marginal Islamic sect employing gunmen on motorbikes to spread terror, the Boko Haram has developed into a more sophisticated terror machine, using methods that shock and awe.

In April 2007, a band of Islamic militants carrying assault weapons attacked a police station in the Panshekara District of Kano. They killed 13 policemen and set the station ablaze. It took a 24-hour battle waged by the army, supported by ground attack airplanes before the militants could be subdued.

That was the first encounter many people in northern Nigeria would have of the Yusufiyya sect, now well known as the Boko Haram. Led by the late Mohammed Yusuf, a disciple of Kano-based Muslim cleric, Sheikh ]afar Mahmud Adam, many members of the sect would later relocate from Kano to Maiduguri, the home of Yusuf after ]afar and Yusuf, who used to visit the former in Kano to seek knowledge fell apart over Yusuf's extremism.

Some Kano-based clerics who spoke to TheNEWS last week, were of the view that Yusuf's loyalists were behind the brutal murder of Sheikh Jafar inside the Dorayi Central mosque on 13 Apr 2007, while he (Jafar) was leading morning prayers.

They hinged their position on the open rift between both men which saw them exchanging words through cassettes sold to their loyalists in Kano and other northern towns. Secondly, Yusuf's supporters were said to be fond of storming Sheikh Jafar's mosque to rudely interrupt his homilies after both men fell apart.

While Yusuf opposed western education and contended that it bred corruption, Jafar, who was trained in Saudi Arabia, saw nothing wrong in western education With the death of his mentor turned-rival, Yusuf spread his tentacles across the north east and north west.

His new adherents were encouraged to leave their homestead and relocate to Maiduguri. This ensured that he will never be short of foot soldiers.

In the year 2008, the Katsina State governor, Ibrahim Shema received a security report of a huge exodus of men and women from Dutsinma town in his state to Maiduguri to team up with Yusuf. It was not from Katsina alone that such migration took place.

The men were usually given training in weapons handling and this made the Boko Haram operatives to be so effective in their drive-by assassinations. Foreigners from Chad and Somalia were alleged to have trained them m guerilla tactics, making of improvised explosive devices, and marksmanship.

Indeed, about a dozen pictures of policemen killed by the Boko Haram members, made available to TheNEWS last week, showed that most of the cops were shot in the head. This is the best proof yet that they (Boko Haram men) had good training in handling automatic weapons.

Today, Yusuf's group is beyond a shadow of doubt the biggest thorn in the flesh of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and the ruthlessness of its killing campaign has spread fear in the hearts of many all over northern Nigeria.

It has contrived to turn Maiduguri, its base and killing field, into a ghost town. With long queues of residents fleeing, belongings perched atop their heads and children being dragged along in quick steps, Maiduguri,the capital of Borno State, are a facsimile of war-time Baghdad.